Shadows of Darkness
by Chaos0283
Summary: Raccoon TimeLine. Sherry recollects the events that transpired around her up 'til where she is now. Her mothers last words to her were to take refuge in the R.P.D. But is it even safe there? And who could this brunette girl be?


**Disclaimer/Claimer:**** I don't own Resident Evil or any of its characters. Resident Evil is owned by Capcom and/or their other affiliates. The only things I own about this fanfic are the plot and some of the characters in it. Of course, the characters I do not own are the canon's who will be featured in this fanfic. Anyone wishing to use any of the ideas or characters that will be in this story must first ask for permission, as it's only the respectable thing to do instead of taking it without asking. Hope you enjoy. Later!**

Shadows of Darkness

By: Chaos0283

It had been four days since she'd received the phone call from her mother, four days since little Sherry Birkin had been told by her mother to take refuge in the Raccoon City Police Department.

If only her mother had known the horrors of what would come to unfold within the police station, then maybe she'd of came and got her. Of course, Sherry had never expected her mom to come looking for her right away, she wanted to think that her parents would've wanted to, but no, they'd be more worried about their precious work at the Umbrella Corporation's chemical plant on the outskirts of the city.

Staring down at the streets below from the second floor of the police department, Sherry hugged herself tightly before proceeding down the hallway towards her destination. Sherry was heading back to the trophy room that was on the east side of the building, although she herself was on the west side, Sherry had decided to take the long way around, as it was less crowded on the west wing's second floor compared to the path she'd of had to of taken if she had gone through the latter.

Using the ventilation shafts was a quick and easy way for the young girl to move around the building and avoid the dangerous corpses that were now wandering the hallways. Aside from the few rooms she had gotten into in the west wing, thanks to the vent's, she'd come to the conclusion that the entire building had become overran with zombies. Shuttering softly, Sherry pulled out a candy bar from one of her pockets, peeling back the wrapping on it and began to eat it. Chocolate was a delight to her and Sherry relished the taste of it in her mouth, she had been living off of mostly potato chips, mints and candy since she arrived at the start of the decimation of the city.

Lookin down at the pendent that she wore around her neck, Sherry smiled as she rubbed the copper base with her thumb. It had been a gift from her mother and father a few months ago for her birthday. Sherry had been very thrilled that for once, her parents had gotten her something, that they had actually remembered her birthday this year. Inside the locket was a picture of herself on the left and of her parents on the right.

Tears slid slowly down her cheeks had she thought of what they were doing right now.

Sherry didn't know much about her parents' profession, but she knew that they worked for Umbrella and that a few months ago, the Special Tactics And Rescue Service members who had survived from their mission in the Arklay Mountains, had made accusations towards Umbrella. Saying that they had been responsible for horrific things, the deaths of all the missing people over the summer, and as well as the deaths of the other S.T.A.R.S. members.

She always did like to think that what her parents did was good, that like they had told her, they were working on a miracle cure for cancer, but Sherry knew different, she knew what her parents did was bad. But, Sherry knew that for them to do something like that there had to be a good reason for it.

Sliding her small body into the ventilation shaft, Sherry crawled slowly towards her destination; all the while thinking of some of the events that had taken place the previous days.

When Sherry had first arrived at the police station she had come across her teacher from school; Ms Dennison. The two had stayed together since the start of it all, since her parents weren't around Sherry had come to take a liking to Ms Dennison, she was like the mother Sherry always wanted and Sherry was the daughter that Ms Dennison had always wanted to have. The two women had a strong bond between each other and the predicament that they were in had only strengthened it further.

That was, until two nights ago.

Sometime that night Ms Dennison and herself had gone for a walk through the west wing of the building, where they thought it had been safe. Everything had been fine up until there had been an explosion of glass behind them; swiftly turning around the two women had watched in horror as two of the zombies slid in through the broken window. Ms Dennison had done her best to fend off the monsters with a piece of 2x4, but it had been in vain. She had let the monsters have her in the chance of giving Sherry an opening to run past them. Shortly afterwards a police officer, Marvin Branagh had shown up in the hallway, had found her crying in the closet that was on the hallway where she had taken shelter.

"What happened, young girl?" He had asked.

Wiping tears away from her eyes, Sherry had then explained to him about her and Ms Dennison going for a walk and how the zombies had smashed the windows and came in, quickly Officer Branagh had dispatched a team of workers to board up the windows of the west wing with whatever they could find.

Thinking about Ms Dennison made her feel bad too; if she had only been a year or two older she could have helped her friend. Another downside to her being as young as she was in the situation that had befallen them.

Pressing onward, Sherry then remembered later that evening about what had happened in the parking garage of the police station.

Due to the problems that they had been having with the monsters while fighting them off on the first floor, they had set up the civilians to so-called be _safe_ in the garage while they took care of some of the pressing issues up on the first and second floors of the building. Throughout the next two hours Sherry had just sat there, not sure of what to do or even if her decision would be good or not. No one knew what to expect from what was going on in the city that they lived in, or if they would even be making it out.

Looking around, Sherry had seen faces she knew and recognized from TV. The journalist, Ben Bertolucci, Elise Jensen who was another one of her teachers, although someone she wasn't too friendly with either.

Somehow, in the middle of the night while they all had slept a horde of the zombies had made it down the ramp of the parking garage and had awoken them from their sleep. Stupidly one of the people in the garage had thought they saw their kid in the mob that was so desperately trying to force their way in to get to the meat, the door had been opened up by the stupid woman and immediately the attacks had begun. Sherry had been forced to watch as people were torn apart by the monsters, blood, organs and body parts flying everywhere in a fashion of pleasurable delight for the zombies.

While others had stood and fought, some ran, much like she herself did. Then again, what choice did she have? It wasn't as if she was going to be able to make a difference in helping to fight the mass of undead that had formed in the garage.

Being the smart child that she was, Sherry had ducked into the ventilation shaft and had crawled away as quickly as possible.

Over the next few days Sherry had found the trophy room that she was so fond of now, it served as her shelter against the outside world and what was happening in the city around her. She had everything she needed, a blanket to keep herself warm, food and water, an escape if the zombies were to break into the trophy room and attack her. There was nothing she wasn't prepared for.

Although, Sherry had felt lonely ever since the death of Ms Dennison. Of the few people that Sherry knew were still alive in the station however, she didn't desire their company at all. Chief Irons, Ben Bertolucci, a few police officers, that Asian American woman she had come across a few hours ago. None of them made Sherry feel safe, not one bit.

And to add even wore matters to that; there was a monster after her.

As childish as it might sound, it was true. Sherry knew it was after her because every time she felt it close by she could always hear the echoes from the ventilation shaft as it screamed out her name. It knew her name! Not every monster she'd come across so far knew her name, which was very puzzling as to why this one in particular was after her.

It wore a white lab coat like her parents, maybe a co-worker of theirs, its inhumanly large body covered in gore, meat to big in places it shouldn't have been. Sherry did slightly recognize one noticeable trait about it; its hair was the same color as hers. She had pondered on what that meant. But like everything else, there was no time to think about it.

Coming to the opening to the trophy room, Sherry climbed out of the ventilation shaft and sat herself down next to all of her stuff.

The whole reason she had gone on a run this evening was because of the food and drinks from the vending machines on the east wings first floor hallway. She had come out beside the machines through use of the vent and had quietly unlocked the machines with the keys she had stolen from the custodians office an hour prior to what she had done.

Wrapping the blanket tightly around her, Sherry laid her head gently on the mound of sweaters that she had gathered to use as a pillow. It wasn't the most comfortable, it smelled faintly of musk as well, but for now, it was her home. Sherry wondered when help would be arriving, the last two people she had been paired with, a cop and a young girl, the cop had spoken of help coming soon, that all they had to do was wait it out patiently and then they would be saved from the horrible nightmare that they were trapped in. Of course, that had been yesterday and now those two very people were surely walking around as lifeless corpses somewhere in the police station.

It was as if she had been condemned to live throughout this nightmare alone, with no ones help but her own, it had been partly why she'd been keeping to herself now, as if a curse was on her.

Sitting up, Sherry looked around. She thought she had just heard a noise, maybe it was a little bit off distance than what she thought it was, but either way she had heard something. Like the sound that blades from a helicopter made.

Rushing over to the vent, Sherry climbed in and quickly made her way for the opening that led out into the armor room. Stepping up to her feet, Sherry ran for the door to the room and then stumbled backwards, falling against one of the suits of armor and then to the ground. The building had begun to shake, a loud crashing noise somewhere in front of the door she was about to go through, followed by the sound of metal colliding with wood.

For what seemed like minutes Sherry just sat there on the floor. Listening and doing her best to hear any noise that might be coming her way, so that she could head back into the vent if she had too.

Straining her ears, Sherry thought she could hear people talking in the room over. Someone had finally come to save them? Then again, if it were someone from outside the city wouldn't they have been trying to alert everyone, let them know the nightmare was over and that they could come out cause it was safe?

Turning around, Sherry began to walk back towards the ventilation shaft when she almost jumped when she heard the door down the hall open up.

Had someone heard her?

Not really caring, she went and hid behind one of the bookcases as the door opened up and she heard someone step into the room. The light footsteps came closer to her, each time it did though she quickly ran to another case, hiding behind it. Then it repeated the process.

The person had cut off her chances of making it to the vent, so Sherry ran into the room, the pitch blackness surrounding her exactly like she wanted it to. Patiently she waited and listened, the footsteps however seemed to just keep approaching. There was no exit in the room that she was trapped in; Sherry knew that this was going to be the end of her.

And when the lit snapped on, Sherry made a break for it.

A warm hand wrapped around her wrist though, Sherry tried jerking free but the person just wouldn't give up.

"Let me go!" Sherry wailed.

"Easy, easy, im not a zombie, take it easy, it's ok".

Instinctively, Sherry hugged the woman tightly. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she felt the woman place slender arms around her shoulders. Looking up at the woman, Sherry stepped back and wiped the tears from her eyes. She was so happy to finally have found someone.

"My names, Claire, Claire Redfield. What's yours?"

"Sherry...Birkin".

"Do you know where your parents are?" Claire asked, crouching down next to her.

"They work at the Umbrella chemical plant, just outside of town" she told her.

"Chemical plant...then what are you doing here?" Claire said to her.

"My mom called, and told me to go to the police station. She said it was too dangerous to stay at home".

Claire nodded. "From the look of things, she was probably right. But its dangerous here as well...you'd better come with me."

Opening her mouth to reply, Sherry suddenly remembered the monster that was after her. She knew that it would hurt Claire if it were to find the two of them together. Sherry had to protect her from it.

"There's something out there. I saw it; it's bigger than the zombies. And it's coming after me!"

Right after she told them that, a loud screech ran throughout the building.

"RRRAAAHH!"

"What was that!" Claire asked her.

Sherry backed away, breathless, just hearing the monster sent Goosebumps throughout her body. She had to get away. For her own sake, as well as for Claire's.

"That's what I was telling you!" Sherry shouted and took off running past Claire.

"Sherry!" Claire shouted.

Ignoring Claire's shout, Sherry quickly ran out of the room and past the suits of armor, heading straight for the vent.

Once inside, Sherry began to crawl as quickly as she possibly could. If there was one thing she wanted to do, it was help Claire stay alive, and for her to do that she couldn't let the monster find Claire. Past the cobwebs, dust and dirt Sherry kept crawling until she was finally exhausted.

Laying her head gently on the cool metal of the vent, Sherry relaxed as she rested; there was a lot of work to do.

**Author's Note:**** The first of my Raccoon Series fanfics has come to be completed. I also would like to make it known that I know Dennison isn't the teachers name and I really didn't feel like bothering looking for the woman's name in the book, so I just made one up. Claire made her cameo appearance at the end, as this fic basically leads up to where the two of them meet. Also, I give credit to S.D. Perry for the bit with Sherry having a close relationship with Ms Dennison. Be looking for more fanfics based on the events of what happens in Raccoon City in the future, although this is a one-shot, the others won't, as I plan to actually have a plot for them. I hope you've enjoyed. I'd like to finish this by thanking everyone who reviews, puts this on their favs and alerts in advance! Later!**


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